As soon as the ball left his bat, Preston Tucker knew he was alone.
Tucker launched a third-inning pitch over the wall in right field during Florida’s 5-1 win against William & Mary on Saturday to surpass Brad Wilkerson atop the Gators’ all-time list with 215 career RBI.
“I hit it pretty well and it was a good feeling right off the bat,” Tucker said. “I knew it was gone.”
As Tucker finished circling the bases following the towering solo shot to put Florida on top 2-0, the senior slugger trotted to the Gators’ dugout with an ear-to-ear smile on his face as he was greeted with a fist-bump by coach Kevin O’Sullivan. Tucker was then congratulated by his teammates before taking a curtain call during a standing ovation from the 4,093 in attendance that lasted more than 15 seconds.
The home run, which came on a 0-1 pitch with two outs in the frame, snapped a hitless streak of six straight plate appearances for Tucker, whose last hit, a fifth-inning leadoff home run against UCF on Wednesday, tied Wilkerson’s record.
“His swing has been getting a little big since Wednesday night,” O’Sullivan said. “I know he wanted to do it, and in his mind he wanted to do it with a home run. Like I said, I didn’t think the sac fly was going to be good enough to break it. (It’s a) very, very fitting ending to the way he broke it.”
Tucker said that in the back of his mind, he was pressing to break the record and it affected him at the plate the last couple of games. Before coming through with the home run, Tucker had seen just 11 pitches combined in his previous six at-bats.
While he added that getting No. 215 out of the way felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, Tucker stressed the meaning of the record to him after the game.
“(It means) a lot,” he said. “It’s pretty cool, especially since it’s held by Brad Wilkerson, who played in the big leagues for a ton of years.
“It means a lot knowing the guys in front of me have been on base a whole lot, going back to Avery Barnes and Matt den Dekker to the guys hitting in front of me this year. We’ve had such a great team the last four years and it means a lot to me.”
Tucker’s home run was his fourth of the season, and the ninth for Florida on the year, with all nine coming with the bases empty.
The Gators finally got one with a runner on board three innings later when freshman Casey Turgeon hit a two-run shot in the sixth to extend Florida’s lead to 5-0. Turgeon’s home run plated fellow freshman Taylor Gushue, who chipped in with an RBI double two batters prior.
It was the first career homer for Turgeon, who is hitting .348 (8 for 23) and has recorded a hit in six of his first seven games.
“He’s a gamer,” O’Sullivan said. “I saw the outfield shift to the opposite way and I’ve seen him do that. He uses the whole field from line to line and he’s got surprising power.”
The two home runs and Gushue’s RBI double proved to be enough for Florida and starting pitcher Brian Johnson, who pitched 6.1 innings of one-run ball.
After allowing no runs but lasting just four innings in his first outing of the season thanks to a high pitch count early on, Johnson was efficient with his pitches Saturday.
The southpaw threw 53 of his 80 pitches for strikes, and got ahead of 20 of the 26 batters he faced with first-pitch strikes. The only run he allowed was a leadoff home run in the seventh inning to Tribe left fielder Tadd Bower.
“They were being aggressive in the count and not taking very many pitches,” O’Sullivan said. “I thought he pitched much better today than he did his first time out.”
Righty Greg Larson pitched the final 2.2 innings and tied a career high with three strikeouts to help Florida clinch the weekend series, which concludes Sunday at 1 p.m.
Zunino injured: Junior catcher Mike Zunino, the reigning Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and Florida’s cleanup hitter, exited Saturday’s game in the eighth inning with a tweaked hamstring.
After extending his hitting streak to 11 games dating to last season, Zunino got caught trying to steal second base; he injured his hamstring in the rundown. He was favoring his left leg as he walked back to the dugout, and was replaced behind the plate in the ninth by Gushue.
O’Sullivan said the injury will be evaluated and that the team would be “very, very cautious” with Zunino during Sunday’s series finale.
Contact Tom Green at tgreen@alligator.org.
Preston Tucker's solo home run in the third inning was his 215th career RBI, moving him ahead of Brad Wilkerson as UF's all-time leader.
